Happy Birthday, Will!

Will has been eagerly anticipating his third birthday for months, well really since Jack's birthday in June. Every time anyone in the family had a birthday, Will insisted that it was his birthday. So on December 22, finally the big day had arrived.

That morning, I heard Jack wake up Will with a sweet "Happy Birthday, Will!" They came downstairs, climbed in bed with us, and we sang Happy Birthday to one excited little boy. Since we had just gotten back from New Orleans/Baton Rouge the night before, we had a slow leisurely morning of watching cartoons before starting the birthday palooza! Let the fun begin!

It has become somewhat of a tradition for our little family to go to Build-a-Bear workshop for Will's birthday. We had his first birthday party there and ever since, Jack insists that we go back. It has always been such a fun day where we set aside the anticipation of Christmas and just focus on Will.

Will's favorite food right now is mac-n-cheese, so we went to Panera where Jack and Will had the mac-n-cheese kid's meal and I had their wonderful soup & sandwich.

Umm, umm, GOOD!

Will proving that it is indeed finger-lickin' good!

Then it was off to the mall. Jack had already decided that he wanted to make a Star Wars bear, was debating between Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader, and in the end Darth Vader won out. Will chose a cute little puppy (this is his 3rd puppy), and named him Mishka Mooska Mickey Mouse (from here on out referred to as M4)...sound familiar to all of you other Mickey Mouse Clubhouse fans? While we were waiting in line, the boys discovered the sounds station. Here you can either record a message for your animal to say or select a prerecorded song. Will loved the Birthday Bear song and so we added that to M4's paw.

Will listening to the Birthday Bear song one last time. Rock on, Dude!

Will presses the pedal to help stuff M4.

Making a wish and a kiss on M4' s new heart.
Every year, I find this part so adorable and worth every penny I pay for these animals!

First Bath

Jack, the Build-a-Bear pro, helps to stuff Star Wars Fan. I must say in regards to the naming of my future grandbabies, I am going to seriously encourage them to defer to my daughters-in-law's name selections.

Star Wars Fan passes the "Huggable Test".

We made sure everyone was thoroughly clean. If only they took such care when bathing themselves!

M4 and Star Wars Fan with their proud daddies just after the official adoption.

As we were headed to the carousel, Will and Jack saw a train that was taking shoppers on a little ride through the mall. So of course, we couldn't miss out on that fun!

Jack had his heart set on riding in the caboose; I almost had to knock a lady down to get that car! Will loved riding in the 'traim' and would wave and yell "Hey!" to all the people as we passed by.

Having fun on the carousel. Surprisingly, one turn was enough to satisfy them...no argument from me!

By this time, I was pooped from all of the birthday fun, but they still had a bit of birthday energy to burn off. We headed to the mall's play area where they ran, climbed, and tumbled for an hour and a half more.

And then it was time to head home for dinner and cookie cake!

Just about 2 minutes before, he insisted "I not tired!"

Will had to have a 'traim' cookie cake since he loves trains and we had just ridden one that afternoon. That is the story that will be passed down to future generations.

Not at all that The Great American Cookie Co was just 6 feet away from the play area, thus saving me a stop by the grocery store on the way home...oh no ma'am! Ahem.


The second time in 3 days that Will turns 3! Want a little spit with that cookie?!?! Anyone?

Happy Birthday, my Love Bug!

New Orleans and The Nutcracker

This holiday season was very special for our family because our niece, L, was dancing as Clara in The Nutcracker Ballet in Baton Rouge. L has been dancing for about 9 years and the role of Clara is the pinnacle of a ballerina's career before she enters into the senior company. I think I have that right (Blythe, please correct me if I am wrong), but remember I am the mother of boys so the ballet is new to us! Anyway, we knew that we couldn't miss it, so we took Jack out of school a few days early and headed down to New Orleans to have some one-on-one time with Happy & Honey before going to Baton Rouge.

We arrived on Thursday afternoon to Honey's beautifully decorated (non-childproof) home! My mother-in-law is a wonder when it comes to seasonal decorating; she doesn't miss a holiday...Valentine's, Mardi Gras, St. Patrick's Day, Easter, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. It truly is a child's dream to see her home; she inspires me to do better with my holiday decorating! In addition to the Christmas decorations, Honey just finished redecorating their den...BEE-UUU-TEEE-FUL!! So needless to say with my two boys, I was a nervous cat just waiting for them to break something. Unfortunately, the deacon's bench will always remember my two hooligan's visit. At one point, I asked them both to please just sit on the floor!

Thursday night, Happy fixed Jack a "true Thanksgiving dinner" because Jack had been so put out that our little family of four had Gumbo on Thanksgiving instead of the traditional turkey. And Hank knows the way to my heart; when we arrived, he pulled out 2 quarts of fresh raw oysters! OHHHHHH, they were so goooooood!!!

Friday, Honey took us to New Orlean's Insectarium. It was a wonderful museum all about bugs! Very fascinating and so much information for both children and adults. Brent and Jack sampled a few of the delicacies from the Insectarium's kitchen, such as Chocolate Chirp cookies (crickets) and cajun-flavored wax worms. We all enjoyed the 3D Bug Awards show with the special effects such as rain, being "stung" by a bee, and smelling a stink bug. But the highlight of the visit was the Butterfly Garden, an open room natural habitat for hundreds of butterflies. We called Jack the "Butterfly Whisperer" because 3 different butterflies landed on him and hung out for awhile!

After the Insectarium, we went down to the Riverwalk to see the boats, ate some charbroiled oysters at Drago's, and bought Brent and the boys some Saints t-shirts. And I tell ya, the Saints haven't won a game since my boys put on those shirts, so we might have to retire them until after the Saints win the Super Bowl.

Lil' Who Dats

Happy and Honey were wonderful babysitters on Friday night while Brent and I treated ourselves to an early Christmas present...dinner at Stella! Divine! We both had the tasting menu and everything was wonderful! If you are looking for a restaurant the next time you are in the Big Easy, we would enthusiastically recommend Stella.

Saturday morning, Jack and Happy had their own special date. They made an early morning run to see how the doughnuts are made at Krispy Kreme. And they returned with Krispy Kreme hats and 2 dozen doughnuts! Speaking my love language!

After a quick stop for po-boys on Saturday afternoon (yes, one of our goals for this trip was to eat all of our favorite New Orleans foods that we have missed), we headed to Baton Rouge for the main attraction, The Nutcracker - A Tale From the Bayou. L was absolutely stunning; she has such grace & poise and a wonderful stage presence. Our niece, A, was a little lamb in the performance, and she was just adorable! Jack was completely enthralled with the performance, laughed at some of the funny moments, and appreciated the beauty of the production. Will...well Will, not so much! It was a constant, constant battle just to keep him quiet, forget about trying to keep the child still. In hindsight, I think Will would have appreciated a babysitter!

Picture taking is not allowed during the performance, of course, so this is the only picture we have of Clara. I don't have one of our little lamb...can anyone share one with me?

The joyfully happy Clara with her proud Daddy

Sunday afternoon was Will's cousins birthday party. Ever since May when we had Jack's cousins birthday party, Will has been asking "when it is my party?" Aunt Blythe agreed that we needed to have a party for that poor little boy. All the cousins came over to play in Aunt Blythe's and Big Neal's backyard (which is really like a park!) and had the best time!

Cousin Z gave Jack some pointers on how to throw a football

Will LOVED driving that little John Deere all around the backyard. All of the cousins play so well together. They were outside playing from 2 pm until 8 pm, stopping only for cake and ice cream, until we finally made them come inside for dinner! It is absolutely wonderful when we go visit because Jack and Will are so busy playing from sun up to sun down that we don't hear a peep out of them.

We did have a little cake and ice cream.

Will was thrilled with his Diego cake


Jack believes that the moment you blow out your candles, you become your new age. So here is Will "officially" turning 3. (It will be the first of three times that he will turn 3 over the course of his birthday season!)


The cake was delicious, just in case you were wondering.

And Will opened his birthday presents! He was so excited about every one of them.

Honey & Happy gave Will the cutest outfit for his birthday, which he wore to Christmas Eve Mass.Doesn't he look handsome?!?!

Once again, Aunt Blythe knows how to throw a party! We had a great time and can't wait for our next trip down!

JPEG of the Week

Howdy there, partnah.

The Firm's Christmas Party

In the six years that Brent has worked at his law firm, we have never been able to attend the firm's Children's Christmas Party. It has always conflicted with Breakfast with Santa at the boys' preschool. But this year it didn't, so we were so excited to be able to attend. And it was so much fun!

The extra large buffet table was filled with a breakfast especially designed for children....doughnuts, sweet rolls, decorated cookies, fruit, Chick-fil-A chick-n-minis, candy, hot chocolate, orange juice, apple juice, and coffee(!). Will was in heaven! And it was soooo good, if I do say so myself. The buffet table was beautifully decorated (I didn't get a pic because I was trying to make sure Will's little hands didn't touch all of the food!) and Will was captivated by the large choo-choo train that was circling all the way around.

There was a stage set up for singing Christmas carols with a very patient man and his guitar. I say patient, because he allowed Will to sing "Jingle Bells" to the captive audience about 6 different times while we were there. He tried to persuade Will to try another carol, like perhaps "Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer", but oh no!, only Jingle Bells would do! Jack got to sing "Santa Claus is coming to Town" to welcome Santa to the Christmas party, and he could not have been more thrilled with the honor.

Jingle Bells take 1. Will introduced himself "HI! I'M WILL! I'M THREE!" Because screaming into a microphone is the way to get your audience's attention.


Jingle Bells take 6. A rousing rendition with Jack accompanying on the mini maracas! Will didn't really know the words until he got to the chorus, but he came on strong with "JINGLE BELLS!" Don't you know that everyone was glad when our family finally left =).

Jack took his duet very seriously.

We then moved on to face/hand painting. These designs were beautiful, not your usually freestyle painting. The elves used stamps to put the design on the hand or face and then went back and colored it in with paint and glitter paint. Really nice!

I'm irritated that the picture is blurry, but my camera would just not focus on the reindeer!

Next up was cupcake decorating, because we felt we just didn't get enough sugar with breakfast!

Will decorating cupcakes with Charlie. Charlie's dad, Chad, and Brent are good friends and Charlie is the grandson of the Judge that Brent clerked for.

Do you want a little cupcake to go with that candy?!?

Then it was onto balloon animals. By this time the line was a little long, but we held out for a candy cane and a tiger.



And one last turn at the mic...singing "Jingle Bells" of course!

It cracks me up that each time he had his hands firmly around that mic.

And finally on our way out the door, we stopped to say Hi to Santa and remind him that Jack wanted a fox Webkinz and Will wanted a Diego.

Santa and the 2 wild hooligans. Isn't he such a sweet-looking Santa? Santa asked if I wanted to take another picture. No Santa, the sugar has kicked in, so I think this is the best we are gonna do!

As always, the firm put on a first class party and we are looking forward to next year (if we are invited back!).

Will's New Big Boy Room

If you are still checking in on me, I thank you! I have no excuse for my extended absence other than life...and it has been busy. Because I hope to start scrapbooking again soon and I will use this blog as my journaling, I will try to highlight some of the events that took place in December. But by now it is old news.

A big highlight of the month was transforming the nursery into a big boy room for Will. We set up the nursery when Jack was about 4 months old (we moved into our house when Jack was 6 weeks old) and it has worked perfectly for both boys. I loved this nursery! It was so peaceful and calming and I just loved rocking my babies here.

So here are a few pictures of the nursery (You'll see some prints on the glider's ottoman; those are the inspiration pictures for the new room).



Will is such a happy-go-lucky, funny, outdoors-loving boy. I saw these prints several years ago when we were in New Orleans and my mother-in-law brought them as a surprise for me when she came to visit! They have been aging well over the past several years just waiting for the right place to be used.

These prints are hanging in Will's part of the jack-n-jill bath

The little boys in the prints just remind me of Will and his infectious personality. So I called the decorator who did Jack's room and told her I had an idea for a "modern Tom Sawyer" room; I didn't know how to pull it together, but I thought it could be really cute in her hands. Dawne loves a challenge and was excited to be working with a somewhat "different/non-typical" theme.

Without further adieu, the unveiling of the big boy room (drum roll):


Jane, the artist, painted Jack's big boy room, and I was so excited to have her back for Will's room. I just love her work!

A close up of the tree. Because of the architecture of the room, it looks like the tree branches are growing into the room. The rope swing is so cute!

A close up of the bunny and bluejay. A funny coincidence...both Brent and Jane are originally from New Orleans. As Jane was finishing up, she casually asked what high school Brent went to. I told her Jesuit. She said, "Tell Brent, from one yat to another..." and then proceed to paint this cute little bluejay (Jesuit's mascot) in about 15 minutes. I stood there amazed! Oh, to be so talented!

More of the cute little critters


The window treatment was designed to look like overall suspenders. A subtle hint to the "Tom Sawyer" theme. Dawne wanted the tree to "grow" over the window seat, with the idea being that Will could read his books sitting under the tree.

Isn't this a fun light fixture?!?! Wispy clouds are also painted on the ceiling.


This is my father-in-law's (aka Happy) childhood teddy bear. It was at home in the nursery and I am happy that he is at home (and well protected) in the big boy room. I just love having these pieces of family history. Also, the bed that Will is sleeping in was Happy's bed, too!


Brent's and my favorite accessory, the firefly nightlight. Will's favorite accessory is the big puppy that sits on his bed. He has to sleep with it everynight!

We are so pleased with how the room was transformed. And I know Will is going to love his new room for many years to come!